Help! Find Word answers

Start your documents off on the “write” foot with tips and tricks from the pros

By Natalie Bahadur

I sat down to write a letter to an old friend the other day. Doing it the old-fashioned way, I put pen to paper and was appalled by my poor handwriting. It has unmistakably deteriorated since I was in high school, a time when I took pride in my neat and legible penmanship. Why the decline? Ah! I realized that Microsoft Word has almost completely eliminated my need to write by hand.

Whether you’re new to the program or use it all the time, chances are there are tips and tricks you’re unaware of. Word is full of ingenious ways to help improve the quality of your work. You just have to know what to do. So we’ve rounded up some frequently asked questions and, with some help from Mike Bulmer, Microsoft Office System product manager for Microsoft Canada, we’ve got the answers you’ve been looking for!

Question: How can I change the language settings in a document?

Answer: Microsoft Office 2007 uses the default language of your computer’s operating system to determine the language setting for documents. For example, if the default language for Windows is English, Word will use the spelling and grammar dictionaries, punctuation rules and sorting conventions for that language. So Word conveniently performs certain tasks automatically, such as check spelling and grammar, as you type. To edit documents in a different language, such as French or Spanish, you must turn on language-specific options.

Click Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools; then click Microsoft Office 2007 Language Settings.
Select the language you want from the Available editing languages box; then click Add.
Click OK to accept the changes.

Question: The Autorecovery feature should always be turned on to ensure the safety of your work. But if for some reason a Word document closes without being saved, can it be recovered?

Answer: An unsaved Word document can be found using AutoRecover. Autorecovery should always be turned on. To turn it on, click the Microsoft Office Button > Word Options > Save; then select the box called Save Autorecovery information every x minutes. Choose to save your file every five minutes or less, Bulmer says. “A lot of typing can be done in five minutes.” When you restart Word after a problem, it should automatically open a list of recovered files. Click on the file you want to recover to open it.

Click Save As because otherwise your document will simply be saved again with the autorecovery.asd name.
Choose the file format you wish to save the file in.
In the File name box, type or select the filename of the existing document.
When you see a message asking whether you want to replace the existing document, click Yes.
Any recovery files that have not been saved are deleted when you quit Word.

How do I change the default settings for my margin width?

Answer: To adjust your margin settings, go to the Page Layout tab, and in the Page Setup group, click Margins > Custom Margins and set the margin dimensions you want. When you are finished, click Default in the bottom left-hand corner. Answer Yes to accept changes to Normal template. Bulmer says to change the default, click Default after you select new margin settings. The new default settings will be saved in the template on which the document is based. Each new document based on that template will automatically use the new margin settings.

How do I insert a picture into a Word document?

Answer: To insert a picture from a web page, follow these steps:

Open a new Word document.
On the web page, right-click the picture, and then click Copy.
In the Word document, right-click where you want to insert the picture, and then click Paste.